Tampa Bay Rays

COMMENTARY | Does the Boston Red Sox organization have a sense of déjà vu with Jon Lester? Is he the same disappointing Jon Lester in 2013 that he was in 2012? View full post on Yahoo! Sports – MLB – Tampa Bay Rays News

Given the context of raw sewage stewing in the Oakland Athletics clubhouse, it's a good time to re-examine something that Tampa Bay Rays pitcher David Price tweeted Friday. Yep, that's his famous dog, Astro, on Tropicana Field, unleashing something raw of his own. Right there next to the pitcher's mound too.Astro thought it was real grass!! Same color at least..not the same smell but he had to go!! So what... pic.twitter.com/JuXAXeWSZ7 — David Price (@DAVIDprice14) June 14, 2013Price didn't indicate whether he had a doggy doo-doo bag on his person to pick up the mess. Or if a Rays employee quickly scooped it up and passed Price a note that said, "Astro can poop where ever if wants if you stay in Tampa after this season. Read more David Price news

The poor Miami Heat, on the verge of losing the NBA Finals because they just can't spend like the big-market San Antonio Spurs, are indicating if they can't get public subsidies for renovations to their 13-year-old facility (which replaced a 12-year-old facility), they may not be able to survive in Miami much longer.Seriously?!? Citing mounting costs for keeping the 19,600-seat arena competitive for concerts and to provide basketball fans more amenities, Heat executives say they will need more help from Miami-Dade to sustain the arena’s current top-notch quality into the middle of the century. They warn that without the start of a new wave of upgrades, the facility faces the fate of the team’s original home at Miami Arena, which was demolished five years ago. ... Miami-Dade pays the arena $6.4 million a year under a deal that runs through 2029. In exchange for building and financing the $360?million arena on county land, owner Micky Arison negotiated an agreement that includes the yearly subsidy and a profit-sharing formula that has yet to deliver any money for Miami-Dade.Asking for a new arena these days seems just rude - ask the Rays - but public dollars for a renovation? Field of Schemes says it's the new thing to do, because, obviously, nobody builds an arena to last more than 15 years anymore.But let's just remember these are the same Miami Heat that fired its entire ticket sales staff when they signed The Big Three and sold out every game. In the same City of Miami that's not turning out to Marlins games. Looking for subsidies in the same economic climate that doomed the Dolphins' public subsidy campaign.So just like LeBron shouldn't count his championships before they hatch, the Heat better not hold its breath for those public dollars. Hey, if Jeff Vinik can do it in Tampa, I'm sure the Heat can figure it out.

Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports Although recent history shows that the Tampa Bay Rays have a revolving door of big-league pitchers, MLB‘s most underrated franchise is in trouble if Alex Cobb misses multiple starts. Prior to getting whacked in the head by a line drive on Saturday, Cobb was by far Tampa Bay’s best starter, but the injury could force him to the 15-day or 60-day disabled list. If sent to the DL, Cobb would join fellow Rays starter David Price, who has been out of action since May 15th. Cobb’s good 2013 campaign has been able to mask Price’s struggles as the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner has just one win and a 5.24 ERA in nine starts. Aside from Cobb, the Rays’ starters have been abysmal. Matt Moore was supposed to be a breakout guy this season, yet his eight wins are a misleading statistic considering his 4.12 ERA and 1.39 WHIP. While Moore has the tools to turn it around, his load will be heavier if indeed Cobb misses a large chunk of time. Alex Colome has just one MLB start on his resume, but the 24-year old has the ability to follow in the footsteps of Cobb, Moore and Price alike. Colome’s lone start came on May 30th against the Miami Marlins of this season where he pitched 5.2 scoreless innings and fanned seven batters en route to capturing the win. Of course, Cobb should take as much time as he needs to recuperate from the viscous hit, but his presence will be missed by the entire Rays roster.

When the Rays entered the season with four major league ready starting pitcher prospects (Chris Archer, Jake Odorizzi, Alex Torres, Alex Colome), most scoffed that the Rays would find a place for them all, but as last season showed when almost 30 players hit the Disabled List at one time or another, injuries happen. This week, you will see all four. After a carousel of players promoted and demoted for spot starts, the injury to David Price's left forearm gave way to Chris Archer's present rise to the majors. Price's schedule was escalated after some incredible bullpen sessions, but the soreness returned after a simulated game this weekend. Instead of pitching at Class A Port Charlotte on Tuesday, Price will throw another bullpen session tomorrow or Wednesday to assess his current condition. Continuing to pitch in Price's stead, Archer will take the mound for the first part of a double header in Boston on Tuesday. To keep their starters on a proper level of rest, the Rays will exercise the 26th-man option for a double header and re-call Jake Odorizzi, who was optioned back to Durham on Thursday to activate Alex Cobb from the bereavement list, who was returning from a funeral. The Odor has pitched two starts for the Rays this season, without recording a win or a loss and sporting an ugly ERA that had more to do with small sample sizes and a rough outing in Miami than poor performance. His first start featured a 1.26 FIP, the second a 7.56. The truth is somewhere in between. Odorizzi was recalled last week to give the Rays bullpen rest after the 14 inning showdown against Boston on Monday, and Cobb's bereavement was the corresponding move then as well. He made one appearance on Thursday, throwing 3.1 innings with four strikeouts and two walks against the Royals. Consequently, his turn in the double header will actually keep him on normal rest. Recovering from that unfortunately struck line drive, Alex Cobb was placed on the 7-Day concussion disabled list this week. He was released from the hospital in less than 24 hours after he slept well and woke with only a minor headache with all tests clear, by all reports. The diagnosis was a mild concussion with a cut right ear, which is astonishing in its own right. Replacing Cobb in the lineup on Friday in New York will be Alex Colome, whose groundball tendancies should play well in Yankee Stadium. He had a very different rookie performance against Miami, his major league debut, where he struck out seven batters and earned whiffs on 14 of his 33 change ups over 5.2 innings (en route to a 1.65 FIP with no earned runs and two walks). Colome has not officially been recalled, giving Josh Lueke more time to help rest the Rays bullpen until Friday. Archer will then start the rotation over on Sunday, the fourth rookie in seven starts, closing the most important seven games the Rays have faced this season. With these considerations in mind, here is the projected starters for the all important AL East road trip: /// BOSTON Tuesday - Chris Archer vs Felix Doubront (1:05), Jake Odorizzi vs Alfredo Aceves (7:10) Wednesday - Jeremy Hellickson vs Ryan Dempster (7:10) NEW YORK Thursday - Matt Moore vs Andy Pettitte (7:05) Friday - Alex Colome vs David Phelps (7:05) Saturday - Roberto Hernandez vs CC Sabathia (1:05) Sunday - Chris Archer vs Phil Hughes (2:05) /// Meanwhile, Alex Torres will continue to dominate out of the bullpen. In 16 innings over eight appearances of varying length, Torres has struck out 23 batters, left every single man on base he was asked to hold, worked a 57% ground ball rate, and walked only three.

ARDMORE, Pa. (AP) — A steady hand gave Justin Rose the shiny U.S. Open Trophy. A wild ride gave Phil Mickelson yet another silver medal. View full post on Yahoo! Sports – MLB – Tampa Bay Rays News

Season: 44-26; Home Stand: 3-1Wrap, Box, Herald-SunThe really important question at hand last night, the 25th Anniversary of the opening of the movie “Bull Durham”, was not who was going to win the baseball game, but whether or not “Nuke” was ever going to win a race against either “Crash” or “Annie”. And so when the moment came and Nuke came out and simply blew ahead of Crash and Annie we thought, “OK, smart move, let Nuke win one. He’s gonna go to the show after all.” But, in a move of minor genius on the part of the Bulls staff, the bull from the original Bull Durham (or a close approximation) came out and took revenge for being hit by Nuke all those years ago. He body-blocked Nuke. Nuke went down as Crash and Annie skipped by. Crash won last night.Well, maybe that really wasn’t the most important event last night. For a Bulls fan, the biggest deal was probably the Bulls taking 3 of 4 games from the Indianapolis Indians, the team with the best record in the International League. It helps to be well out in front in the South Division as the Bulls approach mid-season (that would be tomorrow!). Of course, by September both teams will be very different, but the Bulls can hope that J.D. Martin will still be around. (Note: J. D. just name IL Pitcher of the Week!) And if he is, along with some of his colleagues from last night, players like Leslie Anderson, Vince Belnome, and Brandon Guyer, things look good for the playoffs.For thrills, maybe the biggest deal was that spectacular behind-the-back catch in center field by Jason Bourgeois in the 5th inning. One of those moments you hope to see when you come to a game.Certainly the oddity of the night was Indianapolis manager Dean Treanor getting ejected before the game even started, just after presenting his lineup card to the umps. Guessing was that Trainor was still upset about a call that ended the game on Saturday. Have to say that even for a boy’s game like baseball that seems a bit petulant on Treanor’s part.A close second as far as oddities go would be the decision by the radio station that broadcasts Bulls games to instead broadcast the U.S. Open golf tournament. Now, who in the world listens to golf on the radio? Especially within the rather limited radius of “AM 620 The Buzz!”The scary moment of the game came when Vince Belnome appeared to have twisted his ankle on a play at 1B in the 5th inning. At that moment there was, by my count, exactly one player on the bench, catcher Craig Albernaz. Now Albernaz is one heck of a ballplayer, but I’m guessing that at 5’8“ he doesn’t have a lot of playing time at 1B.Another highlight for Bulls fans was seeing Chris Gimenez back in catching gear and on the field for the first time in what seems like a very long time. Welcome back, Chris!A confusing moment in the 3rd inning was the shuffle of Brandon Guyer from left to right field, Leslie Anderson from 1B to left field, and Belnome coming in from his off day to play 1B. Then the twitterverse blew up with the story, the call-up of Wil Myers. We’ve had a lot of fun watching Mr. Myers this year. He has one of the most interesting swings that I’ve ever seen and the sound off his bat is unique. I’m betting he will do just fine with the Rays. And what better place to begin his career than Fenway? Good luck, Wil.Outside the game —In the 32nd transaction involving a pitcher this year, Josh Lueke has been called back up to the Rays. At a guess there are two more Bulls pitchers ”on the bubble“ to join the Rays today — Jake Odorizzi (did he even make it back? Guess not. He's reportedly starting today in Fenway.) and Alex Colome. We’ll see. But it does explain why Kirby Yates had back-to-back saves over the last two games. Good for Kirby!Infielder Ryan Roberts has been optioned down from Tampa Bay to make room on the 25 man for Myers. Roberts hasn’t been in the minors since 2010. The 32 year old usually played 2B for the Rays, but had a few games at 3B and 1B. At $3 million, I’m guessing he will be

Wil Myers had one at bat before being pulled on Sunday and learning of his promotion to the Rays. During that at bat he doubled down the left field line. Myers was also wearing a 1988 throwback uniform as the Durham Bulls were honoring the 25th anniversary of the movie “Bull Durham” a story about an aging veteran and a minor league hot shot being groomed for the big leagues. Here’s the video… And here is his final minor league home run, hit the night before… Your browser does not support iframes. © The Professor for Rays Index, 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags:

As you surely already know, super-prospect Wil Myers was just promoted to the major leagues. He should slot into the lineup immediately, and provide an instant offensive boost. The ZiPS projection system predicts for him a .253/.317/.444/.761 slash line, good for a somewhat above average .329 wOBA. That's similar to (slightly below) what Ben Zobrist has produced so far this year, and plenty useful, if not eye-popping. But should you believe those projections? Will Myers do worse? Will he do better? There's a school of thought that holds that Wil Myers strikes out to much. This school sees his 24% strikeout rate in triple-A this season, and projects it to rise to an unworkable level when he faces major league pitching. After all, as a hitter moves up each level, the quality of pitcher he faces increases, and his ability to hit those pitchers decreases. These thinkers worry. There's another school of thought which says that truly elite prospects do not suffer performance decreases as they move up levels. These hitters have the tools (bat speed, power, coordination) to hit against any quality of pitcher. Their numbers are merely a reflection of their own development, not their talent-relationship to their opposition. Adherents to this school expect a top prospect's stats to improve as he moves up through the minors, despite the increases of difficulty with each level. Wil Myers, this year's fourth rated prospect by Baseball America, is surely that type of elite talent. And since he was just promoted to the major leagues, I thought it was time to try to put this developmental theory of top prospects to the test. Here's my hypothesis: Top prospects, when promoted to the minor leagues, generally outperform their purely statistical projections. To test my hypothesis, I've made a list of every hitter ranked in the Baseball America Top 10 who broke into the league during the seasons for which I could find ZiPS projections (2010-present). That list contains 11 players (I've excluded Domonic Brown since I couldn't decide which year to call his "break-in" year.* Player Year ZiPS OPS Actual OPS Bryce Harper 2012 .722 .973 Mike Trout 2012 .752 .963 Mike Stanton 2010 .683 .883 Buster Posey 2010 .741 .862 Jason Heyward 2010 .770 .849 Eric Hosmer 2011 .734 .799 Pedro Alvarez 2010 .730 .788 Carlos Santana 2011 .807 .808 Desmond Jennings 2012 .731 .702 Mike Moustakas 2011 .730 .675 Jesus Montero 2012 .760 .685 *Some of these "break-in" years are slightly arbitrary. Some prospects come up at the end of the year, but don't exhaust their rookie eligibility. I chose the last year they were rookie-eligible. That's an illustrious group, with a relatively high (.742 OPS) projection. Seven of the eleven hitters outperformed their ZiPS projection. One, Carlos Santana, met it almost exactly, but he was also the victim of the highest projection. Only three fell short of their projection (one of those being our own Desmond Jennings). On average, the group beat their projection by .075 points of OPS. That's the difference, offensively this year, between Evan Longoria and James Loney. That's a good sign. Maybe we should expect Myers to beat his projection as well? There's a problem with this analysis so far, though. By hand-picking the season that top prospects break into the major leagues, I've created an obvious bias. It's very likely that prospects are promoted and stick if they succeed (outperform their projections), but quickly sent back down if they struggle. Or perhaps the ZiPS projection system underrates prospects, generally? To guard against these biases, I've created a control group. I've gathered a list of every rookie hitter, not ranked as a Baseball America top 10 prospect, who received at least 300 PAs in 2012 or 2010.** This group consists of 36 players Despite their slightly lower (.735 OPS) expectations, only 10 outperformed their ZiP

The GBT – The Good, The Bad and The Telling sandwich, where The Bad is nice and lean and the The Telling is ripe. Royals 5, RAYS 3 (boxscore) THE GOOD: Will Myers. Remember when some kept saying “the Rays won’t call Myers up because there is nowhere for him to play?” And we were all “dudes, if Myers is ready, you find a place for him to play!” Well, the Rays will find a place for him to play and worry about what to do with everybody else later….Alex Torres. Another 1.2 innings of great pitching from Torres who struck out 4 of the 5 batters he faced on Saturday. In 16 innings this season, he has yet to allow a run and has struck out 23 of the 54 batters he has faced with just 3 walks…Luke Scott. Wolverine is in the midst of one of his brief hot streaks with 6 hits in his last 4 games. We better enjoy it while it last. THE BAD: DH Evan Longoria. Evan Longoria spent the weekend as the Rays’ DH as he is battling plantar fasciitis in his foot. The Rays think he will be well enough to play in the field tomorrow. But let’s just say we are not getting our hopes up. THE TELLING: Jake Odorizzi has been added as the 26th player for the Tuesday double-header. He will start one game with Chris Archer starting the other…Alex Cobb has been released from the hospital. He was placed on the 7-day concussion DL. Josh Lueke was called up to replace him on the roster…Wil Myers is expected to be in the lineup most days, but look for him to bat 6th or 7th initially until he gets his feet wet…Wil Myers is the first Rays player to wear no. 9 since way back in 2012 (Elliot Johnson)…Chris Giminez returned from the DL for the triple-A Durham Bulls. This is important because is basically the Rays’ third-string catcher…The Rays are now 36-33, 5 games behind the Red Sox and still in 4th place. THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA… Here’s a link where you can listen to andrew Friedman and Joe Maddon discuss the promotion of Wil Myers. [RaysRadio] Just as were starting to get excited about an accelerated return for David Price, now it has been slowed down again because of soreness in his arm. We should know better than to get our hopes up. This link also has updates on Brandon Gomes and Juan Carlos Oviedo who are both progressing in their rehabs. [TampaBay.com] Luke Scott credits Derek Shelton for his recent hot streak. [TBO.com] Here is a sad story about Shelley Duncan. His mom passed away after a long struggle with cancer, however Duncan’s dad would not let him come home until the funeral. [HeraldSun.com] On Flag Day (Friday; also the birthday of the Army), Army Rangers rappelled from the top of The Trop. [Big League Stew] It’s a good thing Fernando Rodney doesn’t shoot his arrow in Oklahoma (thanks, T.J.). [Indian Country Today] Josh Freeman is not playing with enough urgency? [JoeBucsFan] DOWN ON THE FARM… DURHAM 5, Indy 2. JD Martin struck out 6 and walked 1 in 7 innings. He allowed 2 runs on 4 hits…Brandon Guyer was 1-3 with his 6th home run and a walk…Leslie Anderson went 1-3 with a walk and is hitting .312. MONTGOMERY 5, Jacksonville 2. Enny Romero tossed 5 shutout innings with 5 strikeouts…Mikie Mahtook went 1-5 with his 15th stolen base. CHARLOTTE. no game scheduled BOWLING GREEN 8, Lansing 0. Taylor Guerrieri struck out 7 and walked just 1 in 5 shutout innings…Tyler Goeddel hit his 4th home run and Andrew Toles stole his 41st base. He has been caught just 5 times and leads the ML in stolen bases. © The Professor for Rays Index, 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: The Hangover